Overview

• The Grade 1 Whitney Stakes at Saratoga carries a $1 million purse and grants its winner an automatic berth in the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic.
• Early wagering lists Fierceness at 9-5 as the favorite and Sierra Leone at 2-1 in a competitive ten-horse field.
• Analyst Matthew DeSantis pointed out that Sierra Leone has lost all three of his previous rides as the betting favorite at Saratoga, urging caution at 2-1.
• If Sierra Leone captures the Travers Stakes on Aug. 23, he would become only the eighth horse to win both the Travers and the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
• Sovereignty recorded a 1:49.52 finish in the Jim Dandy Stakes by a length, cementing his status as this year’s leading three-year-old.